Announcement
- ILO-GSEF 8^th SSE Academy
- GSEF Asia Policy Dialogue Call for Proposals

Latest News
- GSEF-UNRISD public seminar

SSE Practice Review
- City of Victoria 'Skills First'

Upcoming Events
- 60th Anniversary of the Treaty of Rome Event
- SEFORIS Conference 'Social Entrepreneurship: Inclusion and Innovation in Society'
- OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum
- UCLG Culture Summit 2017
- SIX The Unusual Suspect Festival

GSEF in collaboration with ITC-ILO is jointly organizing the 8^th ILO (International Labour Organization) Social and Solidarity Economy Academy, which will be taking place from 26^th to 30^th of June in Seoul. For the first time, the ILO SSE Academy will be hosted in Asian country, and the central theme of the academy is 'Innovative ecosystem for SSE public policies - A contribution to the future of work' This 5 day academy will provide ample opportunities for policy makers, practitioners to find effective ways of utilizing SSE as a vehicle for employment generation and inclusive socioeconomic development. Diverse aspects of SSE such as eco-system, participatory governance, legal frames and social impact investment will be addressed through roundtable discussions, key note speeches and site visits. You can download the further details of the programmes including registrations on the ILO SSE academy website and on the GSEF website in the 2^nd weeok of March.

Call for innovative public policies, best practices and research papers for the Asia Policy Dialogue (APD) 2017 is ongoing. APD 2017, the regional initiative to promote policy dialogues on social economy will be taking place in Seoul for two days (30 Jun - 1 Jul). The central theme of the APD 2017 is 'Effective Public Policy Design for Fostering Social Enterprises (SEs) and Social Innovation as a Leverage for Inclusive Socioeconomic and Sustainable Development in Asia'. Selected proposals will be presented during the conference and three winners of the best proposals will receive a grant to cover their travel expenses to Seoul. All presentations and discussions during the APD will be broadcasted through SNS media and APD2017 report will be published for the public.

* For further details of the APD call for proposals please check out the GSEF webpage link and you can also check out the APD 2016 (May, Hong Kong) report for the reference.

GSEF organised a public seminar on the 'Social Economy and SDGs - Perspectives of UN’. The seminar invited Dr. Ilcheong Yi, who is a senior researcher of UNRISD (United Nations Research Institute for Social Development) as a key note speaker, and the Secretary General of GSEF Laurence Kwark also shared GSEF’s efforts of mainstreaming the strategic importance of social economy as a means to achieve SDGs through a discussion session. For details and the summary of the discussion during the seminar will be documented the GSEF website.

Dr. Yi is in charge of UNRISD-GSEF's two year research project 'Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development: the Case of Social Economy in Seoul' and during his visit, he had a series of meetings with Seoul’s academics, policy makers and practitioners for coordinating the project.

The city of Victoria in Australia has recognized the issue that original job training system is not able to provide education based on the new change of industrial structure, and decided to introduce a new job training system called, “Skills First” in order to provide license that leads to the real job positions for applicants. Those applicants that Skills First is looking for are - especially those who seek retraining, need extra support, and look for course options in their local community. More specifically, the program provides supports for apprentices, regional trainees, as well as disadvantaged students. Eventually, Skills First focuses on not only the increase of the number of employment rate, but also the increase in quality of employment for the new change of modern era in terms of effective skills of employees and employment of marginalized people who need more care and supports from the society.

Background of Skills First

• The new change from traditional manufacturing to a high-tech knowledge-based economy has shown that more adaptable and flexible technology skills are required in this new era.
• However, there has been a lack of quality control, Technical and Further Education (TAFE) funding cuts, poor student information system as well as failure to recognize the specific needs of regional and rural areas.

Major contents of Skills First

• Major support goes to growth sectors.
  • Skills First will ensure Victoria can provide the skilled workers needed for the six sectors for the job growth - medical technology and pharmaceuticals, new energy technology, food and fiber, transport, defense and construction technology, international education and professional services.
• Responsive funding
  • The government continuously invests 1.2 billion dollars for training and workforce development of citizens in Victoria.
• Commitment to restoring TAFEs
  • TAFE has been the center to provide job positions to citizens in Victoria, delivered around 70 per cent of all apprenticeships, and provided skills to transfer to new jobs.
• A system supporting quality providers
• Industry at the forefront
  • A new Workforce Training Innovation Fund will provide specialized curriculum development and applied research that develops new skills to identify gaps for new, emerging and priority sectors.
• Supporting jobs in new regions
• Reconnecting the society

Brochure of Skills First is here, and official homepage is here.

The European Parliament's Social Economy Intergroup will hold a debate on 'The Future of Social Economy's Contribution to Economic, Social and Territorial Cohesion in the European Union'. The debate is consisted of five big sessions with following speakers below;

Welcome and opening remarks from Georges Dassis, the President of the EESC, and Jens Nilsson, MEP and SEIG Co-President. And keynote speeckes on‘The Social Economy at the Center of an Agenda for the Progress of the European Union' by Jyrki Katainen (European Commission Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness), Marie-Christine Vergiat, (MET and SEIG Co-President) , and Juan Antonio Pedreno(The President of Social Economy Europe). Also social economy's contribution to economic, social and territorial cohesion in Europe will be addressed by representatives of REVES, SEIG and MEPs.

You can register this debate by 2^nd of March. You can find out programmes of the event here and for any further questions for the event, please contact contact@socialeconomy.eu.org

SEFORIS; a multi-disciplinary international research projected on social enterprises is hosting a conference on 'Social Entrepreneurship: Inclusion and Innovation in Society'. Funded by European Commission, SEFORIS has conducted a series of research to map out European, Chinses and Russian social enterprise development landscapes. The project is now draws toclose with the final conference by presenting the outcomes of the conducted research. On top of the research outcomes, SEFORIS will provide key policy recommendations for policy makers, government administrations, and social impact investors as well as for social entrepreneurs.

To find out further details of speakers and the programmes please visit the SEFORIS website.

The OECD Global Anti-Corruption & Integrity Forum - In the Public Interest: Taking Integrity to Higher Standards, has been one of the prestigious forums on anti-corruption and integrity with policy authorities, private sector, civil society and academic sector. Corruption has been one of the main issues which hinders grassroots participation of various sectors in one country. This deprives motivation of creative authorities from social economy as well as social innovation sectors, which work as the central powers to solve social issues. In this sense, the forum will mainly discuss and create a framework of strategies to facilitate sustainable economic growth through policies protected from corruption. The forum aims to provide three main pillars: global platform, multidisciplinary, and innovation. The goal of this forum is to stimulate fair competition and economic growth, reduce the inequality gap, shape a level playing field for business, safeguard the public interest in policy making, and promote trust in government and politics.

You can find more information from the website here, and agenda here. If you have any further information, please contact integrityForum@oecd.org

UCLG (United Cities and Local Governments) will hold UCLG Culture Summit 2017 in Jeju Island this coming May. The summit aims to develop and strengthen the role of culture in sustainable development especially through the power of cities and local governments. There will be a lot of opportunities to share knowledge, peer-learning and networking with various authorities from local governments and cities. The forum expects to hold 300 participants from all over the world.

GSEF is in consultation for organizing a session on the social economy and culture during the summit this May. Also the main contents of the forum will include UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the New Urban Agenda (adopted by the Habitat 3^rd Conference in Quito 2016) and the Statement of the 2^nd World Assembly of Local and Regional Governments (Quito, 2016).

The summit will have plenary sessions, small and thematic parallel sessions, project presentations as well as networking time.

If you have any questions, please visit the website here, or contact to reg@uclg-culturesummit2017.org

Important dates

• Early Registration Due: By March 20^th, 2017
• Registration Due: From March 21^st to April 14^th, 2017
• Hotel Reservation Due: By April 7^th, 2017

SIX (Social Innovation Exchange) and Collaborate are bringing 'The Unusual Suspects Festival' back to London this year, with the support of Lankelley Chase and Nesta. The festival is a unique set of collaborative events with various organizations from different sectors and parts of the world. It provides a place to gather people, and to share enthusiasm for the social changes through collaboration. The design of the festival establishes peace between organizations and people who have not connected each other yet.

In the past three festivals, there have been 1,900 participants over 70 small events with 110 organizations. The model of this festival is different from other festivals since it creates a collaborative approach as well as contents, connects unusual suspects, brings people and organizations from different places of the world, provides case studies through mechanics, process of changes, and breaks the barriers of social innovation.

The deadline for event submission is March 15^th, 2017. The website is here. If you have more questions, please contact to events@socialinnovationexchange.org